Three days before embarkation day, Thor sent us an email with April's contact information and how to reach her via What's App. As long as we each had the app on our phones, we were both able to contact April. However, we couldn't see each other's conversations with April on the App unless we bothered to make it a group chat. More often than not, if he wanted to ask something, he'd tell me to message April. And I would keep him updated if she happened to message me. This was both of our first times using the What's App feature but it was pretty simple to use. If you can text, you can use the app.
Since we had told Thor when we expected to arrive at the port, we didn't expect to have much contact from either of them until we were headed to the ship. It wasn't until we were in our Lyft driving from La Guardia Airport to our hotel and April called Dad's phone that we realized she'd been trying to connect with us repeatedly this day. She wanted to check in to make sure all was well and confirm our time of arrival at the port. Once settled in at the hotel, I turned my phone back on and saw multiple calls, WhatsApp messages, and an email from April's attempts. I sent her a quick response to let her know when we planned to be back from our morning tour.
It took a little bit of extra effort to get a Lyft ride back to our hotel and by the time we did, April was already checking in again to be sure she was there when we arrived. Instead of having time to kill in the hotel, we basically walked in the room, sent April an update, and repacked our suitcases. We ended up having to grab a taxi to get to the port and April called us again in route. Great morning tour of the National 9/11 Museum and Memorial that I highly recommend everyone experience but it certainly made for some extra travel time between the airport, hotel in the financial district, and cruise port.
Once at the port, we tried to find something that specifically referenced Sky Suite but spent more time dodging porters who kept trying to redirect us and grab the suitcases out of our hands. Thankfully once our "No thank you" turned into "We're in the Sky Suite" they stopped debating with us and let go. I can understand their side of it and am now more grateful that we got to avoid all that when we unintentionally got dropped off in front of the door in Port Canaveral. We didn't have to continue our search for much longer because I suddenly heard our names being yelled from across the parking lot. Our yeller with an enthusiasm and energy twice her size soon appeared out of the crowd. The delightful April was as exuberant as everyone described. She quickly had a cart brought over to load our checked suitcases. In the rush to get repacked and on the way to the port, I had forgotten to attach our cruise luggage tags. Before I could say "Oh, I forgot to put them on" April insisted she had it covered and whipped out blank tags to write our cabin number on. She then insisted on taking my camera bag and our carry on tote bag so we wouldn't have to carry anything while she led us through security and check in. We whipped through the terminal so fast, I felt like I'd burned off all the upcoming cruise calories simply trying to keep up with April's lead. April led us past all the lines and ahead of everyone at each checkpoint. The one thing that left me a little wary was when we reached a security checkpoint that was working through a small group of wheelchair passengers. April paused long enough to let the port employee finish with the passenger he currently had but then stopped the next gentleman from pulling his wheelchair up in front of us as he rightfully expected to be next. We would have been more than willing to wait behind the group already there but April soon got us cleared with the employee and we had no choice but to keep up with her already on the move again.
The next stop was to the check in agents. With the use of the medallion, the process was already more streamlined and faster. I had already completed everything on the medallion app and it thankfully had chosen to keep all of our entered information so we stayed marked as green lane ready. All the check in agent needed was to scan our medallions, see our passports, and confirm that everything had been entered and matched our physical passports. It was comical trying to get our passports out of the carry on tote that April still insisted on holding. She kept telling us that she would remain holding it and we should just grab what we needed while she held it open.
Back to the Indy or should I say April 500 races we went after that brief barely five minute face to face interaction with the check in employee. We were led past a small line of people to an elevator. April saw a gentleman in the line that had a cane and invited him to join our elevator ride. We had a good laugh when the gentleman's wife exclaimed "Oooh can I come too?" Once on the top level of the terminal, it was back to speed racer status as we followed April up the gangway to the ship. She grabbed us an elevator and used her key card to send the three of us up to deck 18. We went directly to the suite and I was able to finally relieve the poor woman of being our packhorse. Unlike RCL, the other Sky Suite this day had long since arrived and settled in so April was ready to give us her full attention from minute one. She offered to give us a walkthrough of the suite showing us how to set up the technology but we said that wasn't necessary. We chatted a bit more confirming that our reservations with Thor had been received and arranged (unlike Celebrity).
April apologized for the fact that our chosen liquor brand, beer brand, and root beer choices did not make the embarkation day shipment and confirmed that her substitutions were acceptable. Considering we had no clue of one brand from the other when it comes to bottles of hard liquor and would have been just as happy not having to pick any to be included in our suite, we had no problem approving her substitutions. This seemed to set the theme of our interactions for the rest of the cruise. Each time we had no issue or fuss about something onboard that other suite passengers she's had might have been more snobby about, April would praise us for being so laid back and say we were her favorite people. I was glad that this was a trip we could be more laid back than in the past since we had no real plans or major goals to accomplish on this trip. It seemed that everyone knew April either from working with her or just because she made everyone feel like they are her new best friend. Whenever we'd share about another crew member we enjoyed, she'd tell us how she loved them as well and used to work with or for them. By week's end, we knew her entire progression from a waitress in food service, to being the secretary and/or assistant of the Director of Restaurant Operations, to being rightfully promoted to Suite Experience Manager. When we chatted on the last night, she revealed that all of the crew chat about the passengers to each other and they all agreed that we were their favorites. Not hard to be kind, especially to a crew who works so hard and has to be away from their families for months at a time. April told us about her two children whom she gets to see in person only via trips back and forth to home four times a year. I wish I could have said thank you and hugged everyone we got to meet and chat with during this cruise. To any crew member reading this, virtual group hug everyone! Ok, now stop wasting that valuable internet plan reading my ramblings.
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